A Short History of English Printing : 1476-1900
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J \ Books about Books Edited by A. W. Pollard A Short History of English Printing BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS Edited bv A. W. POLLARD POPULAR RE-ISSUE BOOKS IN MANUSCRIPT. By Falconer Madan, Bodley's Librarian, Oxford. THE BINDING OF BOOKS. By H. P. HORNE. A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLISH PRINTING. By II. K. Plomer. EARLY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. By A. W. POLI.ARD. Other volumes in pi-eparatioit. A Short History of English Printing 1476-1900 By Henry R. Plomer London Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibncr & Co., Ltd. Broadway House, 68-74 Carter Lane, E.C, MDCCCCXV I-'irst Edition, 1900 Second (Popular) Edition, 1915 The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved Editor's Preface When Mr. Plomer consented at my request to write a short history of EngHsh printing which should stop neither at the end of the fifteenth century, nor at the end of the sixteenth century, nor at 1640, but should come down, as best it could, to our ovm day, we were not without appre- hensions that the task might prove one of some difficulty. How difficult it would be we had certainly no idea, or the book would never have been begun, and now that it is Imished I would bespeak the reader's sympathies, on Mr. Plomer 's behalf, that its inevitable shortcomings may be the more generously forgiven. If we look at what has already been written on the subject the diffi- culties will be more easily appreciated. In England, as in other countries, the period in the history of the press which is best known to us is, by the perversity of antiquaries, that which is furthest removed from our own time. Of all that can be vi Editor's Preface learnt about Caxton the late Mr. William Blades set down in his monumental work nine-tenths, and the zeal of Henry Bradshaw and of Mr. Gordon Duff has added nearly all that was lacking in this storehouse. Mr. Gordon Duff has extended his labours to the other English printers of the fifteenth century, giving in his Early English Printing (Kegan Paul, 1896) a conspectus, with facsimiles of their types, and in his first series of Sandars Lectures presenting a detailed account of their work, based on the personal examination of every book or fragment from their workshops which his unwearied diligence has been able to discover. Originality for this period being out of the question, Mr. Plomer's task was to select, under a constant sense of obligation, from the mass of details which have been brought together for this short period, and to preserve due proportion in their treatment. For the work of the printers of the next half- century we have Mr. Duff's liter Sandars Lectures, and jNIr. Plomcr might fairly claim that he him- self, by the numerous documents which he has unearthed at the Record Office and at Somerset Editor's Preface vii House, has made some contributions to it of con- siderable value and interest. It is to his credit, if I may say so, that so little is \\Titten here of these discoveries. In a larger book the story of the brawl in which Pynson's head came so nigh to being broken, or of John Rast ell's suit against the theatrical costumier who impounded the dresses used in his private theatre, would form pleasant digressions, but in a sketch of a large subject there is no room for digressions, and these personal incidents have been sternly ignored by their dis- coverer. Even his first love, Robert Wycr, has been allotted not more than six lines above the space which is due to him, and generally Mr. Plomer has compressed the story told in the Typographical Antiquities of Ames, Herbert, and Dibdin with much impartiality. When we pass beyond the year 1556, which witnessed the incorporation of the Stationers' Company, Mr. Arber's Transcripts from the Com- pany's Registers become the chief source of infor- mation, and Mr. Isomer's pages bear ample record of the use he has made of them, and the numerous documents printed by Mr. Arbcr in his prefaces. viii Editor's Preface After 1603. the date at which Mr. Arber discontinues, to the sorrow of all bibUographers, his epitome of the annual output of the press, information is far less abundant. After 1640 it becomes a matter of shreds and patches, v.ith no other continuous aid than Mr. Talbot Reid's admirable work, A History of the Old English Letter Foundries, wxitten from a different standpoint, to serve as a guide. His own researches at the Record Office have enabled Mr. Plomer to enlarge considerably our knowledge of the printers at work during the second half of the seventeenth century, but when the State made up its mind to leave the printers alone, even this source of information lapses, and the pioneer has to gather what he may from the imprints in books which come under his hand, from notices of a few individual printers, and stray anecdotes and memo- randa. Through this almost pathless forest Mr. Plomer has threaded his way, and though the road he has made may be broken and imperfect, the fact that a road exists, which they can widen and mend, will be of incalculable advantage to all students of printing. Besides the indebtedness already stated to the Editor's Preface ix works of Blades, Mr. Gordon Duff, Mr. Arber, and Mr. Reid, acknowledgments are also due for the help derived from Mr. Allnutt's papers on English vol. Provincial Printing [Bihliographica, ii.) and Mr. \\'arren's history of the Chiswick Press [The Charles Whittinghams, Printers ; Grolier Club, 1896). Lest Mr. Plomer should be made responsible for borrowed faults, it must also be stated that the account of the Kelmscott Press is mainly taken from an article contributed to The Guardian by the present writer. A. W. Pollard. Contents PAGB Editor's Preface v CHAPTER I Caxton and his Contemporaries CHAPTER n From 1501 to the Death of Wynkyn de Worde 27 CHAPTER HI Thomas Berthelet to John Day . 50 CHAPTER IV John Day 63 CHAPTER V Day's • Contemporaries • John . 8^ xi xii Contents CHAPTER VI PACE Provincial Presses of the Sixteenth Century 98 CHAPTER Vn The Stuart Period (1603-1640) . 126 CHAPTER Vni From 1640 to 1700 156 CHAPTER IX From 1700 to 1750 189 CHAPTER X From 1750 to 1800 219 CHAPTER XI The Nineteenth Century .... 238 Index 269 A Short History of English Printing, 147 6- 1900 CHAPTER I CAXTON AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES The art of printing had been known on the Con- tinent for over twenty years, when William Caxton, a citizen and mercer of London, introduced it into England. Caxton tells us himself that he was born in the Weald of Kent. In 1438 he was apprenticed to a well-to-do London mercer, Robert Large, who carried on business in the Old Jewry, but in 1441 his master died, leaving him a sum of twenty marks, and shortly afterwards he left England for the Low Countries. In the prologue to the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye he tells us that, at the time he began the translation, he had been living on the Continent for thirty years, in Brabant, Flanders, Holland, and Zealand, but the city of Bruges, one of the largest centres of trade in Europe at that time, was his headquarters. Caxton prospered ' in his business, and rose to be Governor to the English Nation at I>ruges,' a position of import- 2 English Printing ancc, and one that brought him into contact with men of high rank. In 1468 Caxton began to translate Raoul Le Fevre's Recueil des Histoircs de Troyes, but after writing a few quires was dissatisfied with his work and gave it up. Shortly after this he entered the service of Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, sister of Ed- ward IV of England, either as secretary or steward. The Duchess used to talk with him on literary matters, and he told her of his attempt to translate the Recueil. She asked him to show her what he had written, pointed out how he might amend his 'rude English,' and encouraged him to continue his work. Caxton took up the task again, and in spite of many interruptions, including journeys to both Ghent and Cologne, he completed it, in the latter city, on the 19th September 1471. All this he tells us in the prologue, and at the end of the second book he says : ' And for as moche as I suppose the said two bokes ben not had to fore this tyme in oure English langage, therefore I had the better will to accom- pli sshe this said werke, whiche werke was begonne in Brugis, and contynued in Gaunt, and finyshed in Coleyn, . the yere of our lord a thousand four honderd Ixxi.' He then refers to John Lydgate's translation of the third book, and continues : ' But yet for as moche as I am bounde to con- template my fayd ladyes good grace and also that Caxton and his Contemporaries 3 his werke is in ryme, and as ferre as I knowe hit is not had in prose in our tonge . and also he- cause that I have now god leyzer beying in Coleyn, and have none other thing to doo at this tyme, I have,' &c. Then at the end of the third book he saj'-s that having become weary of writing and yet having to promised copies divers gentlemen and friends : ' Therfor I have practysed and lerned at my grete charge and dispense to ordeyne this said book in prynte after the maner and forme as ye may here see,' &c.